We start today's news with a look at Jim Ross's latest blog, and then it's straight into PWInsider.com's questions of the day before we delve into other news. Remember that I go in chronological order of stories as they appear on WrestlingDB.com, so it's a crapshoot as to whether we do questions at the beginning or not.
Someone asked if a referee will ever be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He says that they should and I agree. Earl Hebner and "Dangerous" Danny Davis would be in my version of the HoF (in other words, if I had exclusive say on who went in), though honestly I never would have thought to include them if it wasn't asked.
JR isn't 100% sure that Awesome Kong has signed with WWE, but praises the potential hire. Kong has pretty much confirmed that she's signed there on Twitter, re-tweeting congratulatory messages on the matter. He thinks that she'll be a nice fit in the company because she's so unique. He thinks that her name will change (so WWE can copyright it and she can keep the name Awesome Kong for herself), but doesn't think she should wrestle men. Here's where we kind of disagree.
I'm kind of indifferent on the name change deal. If she wants to keep the name Awesome Kong for theoretical post-WWE appearances, then they'll give her something else. Maybe Kia Kong or something? (Her real name is Kia Stevens). I think she'll get over with pretty much any name, unless it's something completely ridiculous.
As far as wrestling men goes, I don't have a problem with it because I think the matches would be more realistically competitive. Then again, I'm kind of going on the assumption that she's much larger than most WWE Divas. It could just be that her TNA opposition was shorter. This has happened before. Tomko and Andrew "Test" Martin immediately come to mind as looking much bigger in TNA than WWE.
The point being, if she's (close to) Natalya or Beth Phoenix's size, I think she'd be workable in the Divas division, but if she's too much larger than the average Diva, they should at least give her a shot in the midcard with men. They could start her out facing women, and then build up to her facing the men. I don't really want to see her totally dominate the other Divas. I like Kong well enough, but I don't enjoy seeing many matches where one competitor has too much of a size advantage. Then again, she could very well lose what makes her special and be lost in the "midcard shuffle" against the men. Either way, they need a gameplan that works best for everyone involved.
I'll try to be briefer with the other points today. Someone asked PWInsider.com if Ted DiBiase (Jr.) has heat with management or someone and that's why he's not being used well. They don't know of anything. Some people just get lost in the shuffle. Not that I'm defending that. Going into WrestleMania last year, I thought for sure that DiBiase was going to be a top babyface on Raw after beating Orton. Obviously, that didn't come to pass.
PWInsider also says that WWE didn't contact Samoa Joe when his TNA contract was up recently, though there was talk of doing so before he re-signed. Here's another guy I thought was going to have a brighter future in wrestling. While the Samoa Joe of 2010 isn't the same Samoa Joe of 2005 or 2008, WWE definitely could have one-upped TNA there and used him to their advantage. My guess is that they either felt that he wouldn't fit in, they had other young talent they thought they could do better with, or are betting that his current floundering will continue. I don't know how much of said floundering is Joe's fault and how much is TNA's fault, but I would have thought he'd be TNA's top star by now.
What do you see as the card for WrestleMania 27? They say Cena vs. Miz, Orton vs. Punk, HHH vs. Sheamus, Edge vs. Del Rio, and Taker vs. Kane. That certainly isn't a bad guess, and would be a heck of a card, but WWE likes to change things up at Elimination Chamber, so I'm not sure we'll see that.We'll almost certainly get HHH vs. Sheamus and if Taker's healthy, he'll likely face Punk (as leader of Nexus, who helped put him out of action), Barrett, or Kane. I'd be a bit surprised if they did Kane vs. Taker at 3 different WrestleManias. The rest will likely not be set until February or so.
The last questioner wonders where AJ and Naomi from NXT Season 3 are. They're both still in FCW. AJ is the Divas' Champion there. I'd like to see both of them on the main roster soon, even if neither get a huge push right away, though some more seasoning in FCW certainly wouldn't hurt. Naomi worked house shows on the Smackdown brand last week (as a heel) as Michelle McCool had the week off from them, so maybe she gets called up in the near future.
Alberto Del Rio was on Raw for two reasons: they plan on pushing him "to the moon" in the next few months, and because they want to introduce the Smackdown stars to the Raw viewers who don't watch the Friday night show. Sound strategy, but again I think we see too much "cross-over" as it is. I was fine with this one though.
WWE hasn't made a decision on who will be the trainers for the return of Tough Enough. Former head trainer Al Snow is an agent in TNA right now. I think William Regal, Finlay, and Goldust would be good choices, but Regal and Goldust are still somewhat active wrestlers (Goldust is injured right now) so they might stick with people who are fully retired from TV.
A Howard Stern personality who had claimed to be hosting WWE Raw at some point was apparently duped by someone claiming to be Ron Simmons and Josh Mathews. They told him he was going to be hosting Raw and have a segment with Stone Cold Steve Austin. That never came to be. WWE said that he's the last Stern personality they'd book for the show, that Ron Simmons doesn't even work for the company anymore, and that Josh Mathews doesn't do anything in regards to booking talent. Ouch. I would have been surprised if hey had someone who goes by "Jeff The Drunk" on WWE TV anyway. And someone associated with someone as controversial as Howard Stern, and so on.
The Great Khali is expected to return to WWE soon, as he's done with the Indian reality show he was on. I'm not exactly thrilled with this news. I didn't hate The Great Khali by any stretch, but I think that (particularly on Raw) there are better people to spend TV time on. I guess he could fill a bit of space on Smackdown or fill some time in the Royal Rumble, but I don't see much benefit in him taking up much time on Raw.
A house show on Saturday will now feature Big Show vs. Alberto Del Rio instead of Rey Mysterio facing him. I'm thinking that Rey is still somewhat hurt, so they're limiting him a bit in his wrestling appearances. Will he be able to make it through the WrestleMania season without needing to take off full time? We'll see.
Former WWE Diva Tiffany was removed from an indy show in California. The promotion says that she made additional demands after they had already booked her, closed negotiations, and began advertising her. Tiffany says that she wasn't aware that she had been taken off of the show, and that everything she was asking for was standard in every entertainment contract. She says that she willingly took less than her standard booking fee in order to have the opportunity to face Alissa Flash. It's he said-she said here, so if there's any more to the story in the future I'll cover it.
Smackdown on New Year's Eve drew a 1.43 rating. Ouch. Hopefully this was just a one-time thing due to the holiday and they're back to the 1.7 range (if not higher) this Friday.
Jim Ross will likely be backstage at the Royal Rumble, continuing to help the announcers. There are still no plans for him to return on-air.
Jeff Hardy is being advertised for a TNA house show this March in New Jersey. It's unknown if he'll be able to make that booking based on his current legal situation.
A former "Big Brother" contestant named Jessie Godderz is now training at Team 3D's wrestling school. He's had TNA tryouts in the past, so he could be on the way there at some point. I've never seen him wrestle, so I can't say whether this is a good move or not. We'll see what Team 3D can get out of him.
The last news story of the day has to do with a Smackdown spoiler, so I'll wait until Friday's Smackdown thoughts to mention that one.
And FINALLY we have a wrap. If you made it this far, I salute you. I'll return tomorrow.
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